Editing video using a corresponding synchronized written transcript by selection from a text viewer

ABSTRACT

A network-based method and system for working with transcripts and corresponding video allows a media editor to rapidly edit video based on its corresponding written transcript, rapidly create amalgamated video from segments of multiple videos working from the corresponding transcripts, as well as assign attributes to video and audio and their corresponding written transcripts. The user can quickly find and access portions of transcripts and the corresponding video segments within a single, multi-video project and across multiple projects. A network-based workspace application allows the user to access several workspace panels on his/her Internet browser. Workspace panels can slide into view, be hidden from view, and expand/collapse in size so that the user can work with combinations of workspace panels to best meet the needs of the tasks he/she is performing. Each panel represents a step in a multi-step process that begins with a collection of videos and corresponding transcripts.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 9,141,938,filed Oct. 30, 2012, and issued Sep. 22, 2015, which is a divisionalapplication of U.S. Pat. No. 8,306,816, filed May 27, 2008, and issuedNov. 6, 2012, which claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/940,197, filed May 25, 2007, the entirety of all of which isincorporated herein by this reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to audio/video editing. Moreparticularly the invention is directed to a method and system for rapidaudio/video editing using an associated written transcription.

Technical Background

Transcription is the rendering of the spoken word into written form.While this process goes back to the earliest examples of written poetryand narrative, this discussion will focus on the modern practice oftranscription in the various disciplines that have need of it.

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph for the purpose of recording andreproducing the human voice, using a tinfoil-covered cylinder, in 1877.When Edison listed ten uses for his invention, the top item was “Letterwriting and all kinds of dictation without the aid of a stenographer.”Prior to this, a reporter would have to rely on contemporary notes, andthe business world on secretaries trained to take shorthand and type upthe notes later. Edison's invention created the possibility thatsomething said in one location could later be transcribed elsewhere,with the additional benefit of repeated listening for greater accuracy.Since then, advances in the field of transcription have been closelytied to the development of recording technology.

By the 1930's, machines specifically designed for dictation and playbackhad become ubiquitous in American offices. Gradually cylinder-basedmachines gave way to tape, but until the 1990's the practice oftranscription still required the physical delivery of recorded mediafrom the location of recording to the location of transcription.

In the early 1990's, practitioners began to recognize and make use ofthe potential of the Internet and email in the practice oftranscription. Whereas previously a transcript needed to be printed anddelivered to a client, Internet email made it possible to simply attacha document in electronic form to an email message. Additionally, as taperecordings began to be replaced by digital media and businesses becamemore sophisticated in their use of the Internet, recordings destined fortranscription could be uploaded to a secure web site and then downloadedby the transcriber.

In spite of these technological advances that have greatly eased thereceipt and delivery of transcription materials, transcription of speechremains a cumbersome process that is of limited utility to clients forat least two reasons. The first reason is the amount of time required totranscribe speech into written form; the second has to do with theability of clients to coordinate the original speech with the completedtranscripts.

Transcription relies on the abilities of a trained professional tolisten carefully, understand what is being said, and accurately transferthe content and nuance to the written page. To do this well requires agreat deal of time. Digital recording and electronic communication haveaccelerated the transmission of recordings and delivery of transcripts,but a skilled transcriber still requires at least several hours totranscribe one hour of recorded speech. In this era of instantcommunication and an ever-accelerating need for information andmaterials, even this amount of time has begun to seem a roadblock totimely business interactions.

The second difficulty referred to above has to do with the difficulty ofreconciling a written transcription with its recorded source. Forexample, a documentary filmmaker may shoot twelve rolls of interviewsand have them transcribed in order to find the most useful footage. Eventhough the transcripts contain time-coding that is synchronized with therecordings, it can still be a cumbersome, time-consuming task for thefilmmaker to go back and locate the desired footage based on the writtentranscript. Often, this sort of project involves many hours of footagearriving from different sources in various locations, thus compoundingthe problem.

Accordingly, there exists a great need in the art to reduce or eliminatethe time inefficiencies imposed on clients by the labor-intensive natureof the conventional transcription process and the difficulty ofreconciling the transcript with the source.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A network-based method and system for working with transcripts andcorresponding video allows a media editor to rapidly edit video based onits corresponding written transcript, rapidly create amalgamated videofrom segments of multiple videos working from the correspondingtranscripts, as well as assign attributes to video and audio and theircorresponding written transcripts. The editor can quickly find andaccess portions of transcripts and the corresponding video segmentswithin a single, multi-video project and across multiple projects. Anetwork-based media editing workspace application allows the editor toaccess several workspace panels on his/her Internet browser. Workspacepanels can slide into view, be hidden from view, and expand/collapse insize so that the editor can work with combinations of workspace panelsto best meet the needs of the tasks he/she is performing. Each panelrepresents a step in a multi-step process that begins with a collectionof videos and corresponding transcripts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 provides a diagram of a machine in the exemplary form of acomputer system within which a set of instructions, for causing themachine to perform any one of the methodologies discussed herein below,may be executed.

FIG. 2 provides a schematic diagram of a method for rapid transcription.

FIG. 3 provides a schematic diagram of a network-based system forproducing and working with transcripts.

FIG. 4 shows a main page from the system of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows a matrix diagram illustrating workflow in a rapidtranscription process.

FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of the functional architecture of asystem for working with transcripts.

FIG. 7 provides a flow diagram of a sub-process for opening a project.

FIG. 8 provides a flow diagram of a sub-process for making a tagg.

FIG. 9 provides a flow diagram of a sub-process for navigating textthrough video.

FIG. 10 provides a flow diagram of a sub-process for fine-tuning timestamps in a tagg.

FIG. 11 provides a diagram of the overall user interface of the mediaediting workspace application, including all workspace panels, accordingto an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 12 provides a diagram of workspace panels A & B: Events Library,according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 13 provides a diagram of workspace panel C: Event Transcripts,according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14 provides a diagram of workspace panel D: Project Library/ProjectTranscripts, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 15 provides a diagram of workspace panel E: View Video, accordingto an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 16 provides a diagram of the media editing workspace user interfacewith the positions of panels C and D swapped, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 17 provides a diagram of the user interface where panels D and Eare hidden, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 18 provides a diagram of the user interface where panels A and Bare hidden, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 19 provides a diagram of the user interface where panels A, B, andE are hidden, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 20 provides a flow diagram showing the steps for creating labelsand whitelists, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 21 is a flow diagram of how an editor may create a project, editand amalgamate video clips and their corresponding transcripts withinthat project, and may save and export the project, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 22 is a high level architecture diagram showing the interactionamong components of the audio/video transcription and editing system,according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 23 provides a diagram of two different views of Panel D.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and system for producing and working with transcripts accordingto the invention eliminates the foregoing time inefficiencies. Bydispersing a source recording to a transcription team in small segments,so that team members transcribe segments in parallel, a rapidtranscription process delivers a fully edited transcript within minutes.Clients can view accurate, grammatically correct, proofread andfact-checked documents that shadow live proceedings by mere minutes. Therapid transcript includes time coding, speaker identification andsummary. A viewer application allows an editor to view a video recordingside-by-side with a transcript. Selecting a word in the transcriptlocates the corresponding recorded content; advancing a recording to aparticular point locates and displays the corresponding spot in thetranscript. The recording is viewed using common video features, and maybe downloaded. The client can edit the transcript and insert comments.Any number of colleagues can view and edit simultaneously.

A network-based method and system for working with transcripts andcorresponding video allows an editor to rapidly edit video based on itscorresponding written transcript, rapidly create amalgamated video fromsegments of multiple videos working from the corresponding transcripts,as well as assign attributes to video and audio and their correspondingwritten transcripts (hereinafter, “audio/video is used as a shorthand tomean media comprising one or more of audio and video). The client canquickly find and access portions of transcripts and the correspondingvideo segments within a single, multi-video project and across multipleprojects. A network-based workspace application allows the client toaccess several workspace panels on his/her Internet browser. Workspacepanels can slide into view, be hidden from view, and expand/collapse insize so that the client can work with combinations of workspace panelsto best meet the needs of the tasks he/she is performing. Each panelrepresents a step in a multi-step process that begins with a collectionof videos and corresponding transcripts.

An embodiment allows the client to create a final video that may be anedited version of a single video source or may be an amalgamated videothat includes segments from multiple video sources. The client may stepthrough multiple iterations of this process going forward and backwardthrough the workspace panels until they have completed a final versionof their edited and amalgamated video.

An embodiment allows the client to assign attributes to transcripts andportions of transcripts for content using any number of client-definedcriteria as well as comment on the transcript pieces. With thiscapability clients may create a knowledge base and/or content-basedlibrary to suit their specific needs and then use the correspondingtopic specific transcripts/videos as they see fit.

An embodiment may give the client the ability to select specific panelsto view and work with by sliding panels on and off screen and expandingand/or collapsing panel sizes.

An embodiment supports the use of multiple monitors.

All of the above functionality can also be applied to audio files andtheir corresponding transcripts, with the exclusion of the videocomponent. The same applies to one or more of the embodiments describedherein below.

Hardware Implementation

Referring now to FIG. 1, shown is a diagrammatic representation of amachine in the exemplary form of a computer system 100 within which aset of instructions for causing the machine to perform any one of themethodologies discussed herein below may be executed. In alternativeembodiments, the machine may comprise a network router, a networkswitch, a network bridge, personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellulartelephone, a web appliance or any machine capable of executing asequence of instructions that specify actions to be taken by thatmachine.

The computer system 100 includes a processor 102, a main memory 104 anda static memory 106, which communicate with each other via a bus 108.The computer system 100 may further include a display unit 110, forexample, a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT). Thecomputer system 100 also includes an alphanumeric input device 112, forexample, a keyboard; a cursor control device 114, for example, a mouse;a disk drive unit 116, a signal generation device 118, for example, aspeaker, and a network interface device 128.

The disk drive unit 116 includes a machine-readable medium 124 on whichis stored a set of executable instructions, i.e. software, 126 embodyingany one, or all, of the methodologies described herein below. Thesoftware 126 is also shown to reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 104 and/or within the processor 102. The software126 may further be transmitted or received over a network 130 by meansof a network interface device 128.

In contrast to the system 100 discussed above, a different embodiment ofthe invention uses logic circuitry instead of computer-executedinstructions to implement processing offers. Depending upon theparticular requirements of the application in the areas of speed,expense, tooling costs, and the like, this logic may be implemented byconstructing an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) havingthousands of tiny integrated transistors. Such an ASIC may beimplemented with CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor), TTL(transistor-transistor logic), VLSI (very large scale integration), oranother suitable construction. Other alternatives include a digitalsignal processing chip (DSP), discrete circuitry (such as resistors,capacitors, diodes, inductors, and transistors), field programmable gatearray (FPGA), programmable logic array (PLA), programmable logic device(PLD), and the like.

It is to be understood that embodiments of this invention may be used asor to support software programs executed upon some form of processingcore (such as the Central Processing Unit of a computer) or otherwiseimplemented or realized upon or within a machine or computer readablemedium. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine, e.g. acomputer. For example, a machine readable medium includes read-onlymemory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media;optical storage media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical,acoustical or other form of propagated signals, for example, carrierwaves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.; or any other type ofmedia suitable for storing or transmitting information.

Terminology

An ‘Event’ is defined herein as the original audio/video provided by theclient together with the resulting corresponding transcripts that arefurnished to the client. Each event may be given a unique name, such as“Best Practices Interviews”, and typically contains multiple audio/videofiles.

A client is one who desires transcription of an event. Typically, theclient owns the media of an event and may contract a transcriptionservice to provide a transcription of and synchronized with the mediathat captures the event.

A transcriber is one who uses the transcription workspace tools toproduce at least a partial transcription of one or more media assets.The client may perform transcription using the transcription workspacetool, or a transcriber may be employed by a company providingtranscription services to a client.

A transcription editor is one who assembles all of the partialtranscriptions for an event as requested by a client. The transcriptioneditor may cross-reference transcribed material against recordedsegments, review each of the partial transcriptions, and perform factchecking.

A media editor (also called video editor) uses the event assets togetherwith the transcription artifacts to easily create an amalgamated videothat may include portions of one or more events. The client may use themedia editing workspace as a media editor, or a media editor may beemployed by a company that performs media editing services.

A ‘project’ is defined herein as a work item including one or moreevents or portions of events where the contents of the event(s) havebeen manipulated and saved as a finished work piece. For example, theclient may take the videos from the event, “Best Practices Interview”,and select portions from each of the videos in the project and piecethem together to create a single, amalgamated video. This new projectmay be uniquely named based on the more refined subject matter, such as“Best Practices—Customer Service.”

A ‘project piece’ as used herein is a portion of a transcript/videotaken from an event and copied into a project. A project may containproject pieces taken from any number of events. Project pieces can bearranged in a specific sequence within the project.

A ‘project section’ as used herein is a collection of contiguous projectpieces within a single project. The contiguous project pieces can beidentified and named as a project section by the client. The projectsection may then be rearranged and acted upon as a whole within theproject.

A ‘tagg’ is an object representing a portion of the video. A taggidentifies the start and end positions of the video portion in thetextual transcript and in the video source.

A ‘label’ is defined herein to be any word or phrase created and appliedto a portion of a transcript in order to uniquely identify thattranscript piece and/or its corresponding video. Labels may include butare not limited to: speaker identity, speaker sex, date of interview,topics covered, political identification, income, discussion of factsrelevant to a legal proceeding, etc. One or more labels may be assignedto a tagg. For example, a video clip of a discussion between BarackObama and Vladimir Putin may be associated with labels “US President”,“Barack Obama”, “Russian President”, and “Vladimir Putin”. A singlelabel may be associated with more than one tagg. For example, a clip ofPresident Bush's ‘Mission Accomplished’ speech may also be assigned thelabel “US President.”

Labels once applied can then be used to search for specificvideos/transcripts and in particular, specific portions ofvideos/transcripts.

A ‘label whitelist’ is used herein to refer to a collection of labelsthat is saved and uniquely named for use on future projects.

When the generic terms “project” or “projects” are used, they refer toboth events and projects.

Architectural Overview

FIG. 22 is a high level architecture diagram showing the interactionamong components of the audio/video transcription and editing system,according to an embodiment of the invention. In particular, FIG. 22illustrates the flow of data through the system at a high level ofabstraction. The system comprises Asset Sources 2210, HostingEnvironment 2200, Transcription Workspace 2220, and Media EditingWorkspace 2230. In Step 1, an event may be captured as audio/video by arecording device such as a tablet, a phone, a camera, or an audiorecorder. Once the live analog signals are digitized and stored on apersistent media in one or more of the recording devices, the digitizedrecording may be stored in an Assets Database 2202 (Step 2). HostingEnvironment 2200 represents the provisioning and management of the ITinfrastructure where the backend system stores assets and provides atranscription and editing web service. The hosting environment 2200 maybe outsourced and hosted in a cloud or it may be managed within theservice provider's data center. Assets Database 2202 may store therecorded audio and video that will be transcribed and edited. Atranscriber may use transcription device running a web browser torequest web page Dashboard 2244 that provides access to thetranscription dashboard (Step 3). The transcription dashboard providesthe transcription functionality including requesting assets totranscribe (Step 4), tools to transcribe the audio and video to atextual representation (Step 5), and uploading transcription artifactssuch as project lists, transcriptions, and taggs to the web server (Step6). When uploaded from the transcription device to the web server, theweb server stores the transcription artifacts in the TranscriptsDatabase 2204 (Step 7).

A transcription editor may then retrieve the individual transcriptsegments into a single document. The transcription editor may access theindependent transcription artifacts together with the source assets tocreate a single transcription of an event.

The Media Editing Workspace 2230 works similarly to the TranscriptionWorkspace 2220. A media editor may use an editing device running a webbrowser to request web page dashboard 2244 that provides access to theediting dashboard in Step 8.

When the web server 2240 receives a request to return transcriptionartifacts, in Step 9 the desired artifacts are retrieved from thetranscripts database 2204 and sent to the browser running on therequesting editing device (one of 2232, 2234, or 2236) in Step 10. Theeditor uses the editing functionality to create an edited source andcorresponding transcript that are uploaded to the web server at Step 11.New or updated transcript artifacts may be stored in the transcriptsdatabase 2204 in step 12, and edited source may be stored in assetsdatabase 2202 in step 13.

Transcription Services

Turning now to FIG. 2, in overview, a method 200 for rapid transcriptionmay include at least one of the following steps:

Rapid Transcript:

-   -   acquire source material 202;    -   disperse source material in short segments to transcribers 204;    -   produce transcript from the transcribed segments 206;    -   edit, proofread and fact-check the transcript 208;        Synch:    -   synchronize the transcript to the source material 210; and    -   client accesses and interacts with the transcript via a        web-based viewer 212.

The rapid transcript process is used to create, within minutes, awritten transcript of taped or live proceedings. The transcript isposted, in incrementally updated segments, on a web page accessible bythe client. The client can read the text directly from the web page, aswell as download recordings of the event and copies of the transcript ina series of continually updated documents.

Rapid transcript is useful for creating written transcripts of thefollowing types of events:

-   -   financial conference calls:    -   basic conference calls;    -   interviews for television or documentary film production;    -   conventions and meetings;        -   keynotes;        -   breakout sessions;        -   panel discussion;    -   legal proceedings;        -   depositions;        -   hearings;        -   witness interviews and examinations;    -   transcription of broadcast for placement on Internet;        -   candidate debates;        -   press conferences; and    -   previously recorded sessions requiring immediate transcription.

Rapid transcript employs a novel system configuration that allows aprovider to quickly disperse short segments, for example, one minute inlength, of a live event or recording to any number of transcribers. Thisallows each member of a team of transcribers to be simultaneouslyworking on a given segment of recorded material. Thus, if it takes asingle transcriber one hour to transcribe a fifteen-minute recording, ateam of five transcribers can have the entire segment transcribed,edited, and posted to a web site within twenty minutes. In the case of alive event, this means that participants in a meeting or on a conferencecall, for example, can be viewing an accurate, grammatically correct,proofread and fact-checked document that shadows the live proceedingsupon which it is based by mere minutes. This transcript may include timecoding, speaker identification, and a summary of important points. Thetranscript can be delivered via email or through a secure web page,giving clients easy access via computer or handheld device.

Referring now to FIG. 3, shown is a schematic diagram of a system 300for rapid transcribing. At a provider's location, an FTP (file transferprotocol) server 302 receives source material 304 in the form of audioinput from any source. The server may encode the audio portion of thesource material into audio files, such as mp3 format or various othercompressed media formats. Audio may arrive via the Internet usingVoiceOverIP (VOIP), various streaming media, or SHOUTCAST (AOL LLCDulles, Va.) software. Audio may also arrive via landline telephone orcell phone connection.

The audio signal is converted into segments of predetermined,configurable length, one minute, for example, by a recording system 306,such as the VRS recording system (NCH SOFTWARE PTY. LTD., Can berra,Australia). Each audio segment may be saved to a source folder 308 witha filename that includes a unique alphanumeric code identifying theclient and project, followed by the year, month, day, hour, and minuteof the segment.

Any number of individual, password-protected folders 312, 314 isestablished on the FTP server for each transcriber and editor. Asynchronization module 310 copies the audio segments from the sourcefolder and pastes a copy of each one into each Transcriber's 312 andEditor's 314 FTP folder. In one embodiment, SYNCTOY (MICROSOFTCORPORATION, Redmond, Wash.) fills the role of synchronization module.When copying files from the source folder 308 to the transcriber andeditor folders 312, 314, using SYNCTOY'S ‘combine’ synchronizationmethod assures that files exist at both locations, while deleted andrenamed files are ignored. Using such a synchronization method ispreferred in this case because, as explained below, during theproduction process, as transcribers transcribe audio segments downloadedfrom the FTP server, the segments are deleted from transcriber's folder.The use of a synchronization method that ignores deleted files assuresthat system resources are not wasted copying files from the sourcefolder 308 unnecessarily.

The transcriber stations 324 and editor station 326 are typically, butnot necessarily, located off-site. A transcriber station 324 typicallyconstitutes a computational device programmed to enable transcription ofhuman speech. In one embodiment, the computational device is programmedwith transcribing software, such as EXPRESS SCRIBE (NCH SOFTWARE PTY.,LTD.). Additionally, the transcriber station 324 includes a transcriberoperating the computational device to transcribe downloaded segments.

An editor station 326 typically constitutes a computational deviceprogrammed to enable activities such as editing, proofreading andfact-checking. Additionally, the editor station includes an editor usingthe computational device to perform the activities of an editor.

In FIG. 3, the Transcriber Stations 324 and Editor Station 326 aresurrounded by a dashed line for ease of representation to indicate thesimilarity of their status as clients to the web server 316 and the FTPserver 302. Double-headed arrows between the transcriber stations andeditor station and the servers are included to illustrate thebidirectional data flow between the clients and the servers. The dashedline is not intended to indicate that the client, in the form oftranscriber stations 324 and/or editor station 326 are disposed at thesame location, although they could be.

A web server 316 includes a front end 318 that manages authentication tothe main page 320—described in greater detail below. Whenever atranscriber arrives at the main page URL, the log-in action through a‘before_filter’ verifies a browser's session user ID against thosestored at the web server 316. If verification fails, the browser isredirected to a login page. If the browser authenticates successfully,the browser is redirected to the main page.

Preferably, a new, password-protected web page is created for each RapidTranscript project that may include: one or more main pages 320 for useby the transcribers, one or more append pages 322, and one or moreclient pages 330 upon which the final edited transcript is posted.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary main page 400. As shown in FIG. 4, the mainpage 400 includes an alternating sequence of time stamps 406 and buttons404. The main page 400 is refreshed at regular intervals, one minute,for example. As in FIG. 4, the initial time stamp in the main pagepreferably starts at 00:00:00. Each subsequent time stamp in the timestamp sequence is incremented by fixed interval, for example, oneminute, until the sequence reaches the duration of the recorded sourcematerial. The time stamps are preferably displayed in HH:MM:SS format.As shown, time stamps 406 alternate with buttons on the page.

Clicking one of the buttons redirects the browser to an append page 322that is associated with the time stamp above the button. An append pagecontains a text field and a text field ‘submit’ button. It is to benoted here that portions of an embodiment of the present applicationemploy a model-view-controller development framework, for example “Rubyon Rails”, wherein the “model” is understood to constitute a data model,the “view” constitutes a user interface and the “controller” constitutesthe application's control logic. However, other programming approachesand/or development frameworks can be employed to implement the systemherein described and are within the scope of claims. The text field‘submit’ button, when clicked, submits the text field input to an actionwhich then passes the input to a model, which, in turn, adds the inputto a data structure, such as a table, which is associated with aparticular time stamp. Transcribers can press a button to “claim” asegment for transcription associated with a given audio segment. In thisway, a group of transcribers is able to spontaneously organize itselffor maximum efficiency.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the first two time stamps bear thetranscriber initials “NS”, and “AG”, respectively. Thus, those twosegments have been claimed by the transcribers identified by theinitials “NS” and “AG.” As above, the transcriber may claim a time stampby clicking the ‘append’ button for the time stamp, which navigates thetranscriber to the ‘append’ page 322 for the time stamp. Upon gainingaccess to the ‘append’ page, the transcriber may enter his/her initialsin the text field, and click the ‘submit’ button, whereupon thetranscriber's initials are entered into the data structure for the timestamp and subsequently displayed on the ‘append’ page. In oneembodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the transcriber's initials appear abovethe ‘append’ button for the time stamp.

As previously described, recorded segments are written to thetranscriber folders 312 on the FTP server 302. In order to download therecorded segments to a transcribing station 324, the transcriber sets upan automated incoming FTP connection. The transcribing software on thetranscription station is then configured to authenticate and check fornew files in the transcriber's folder 312, at regular intervals of, forexample, one minute. As new files become available, they areautomatically downloaded to the transcription station 324. Whenever thetranscription station downloads new files over the FTP connection, thetranscriber can choose to transcribe a new audio file. In actualpractice, the transcriber transcribes only files that the transcriberhas claimed by means of the foregoing reservation process.

The transcriber looks for the claimed file among the downloaded audiofiles and transcribes the claimed file.

After finishing the transcription, the transcriber may then upload thetranscription by the previously described process for submitting input:he/she navigates to the main page 320, clicks the ‘append’ button 404for the particular time stamp. Clicking the ‘append’ button navigatesthe transcriber to the ‘append’ page 322 for the time stamp. Thetranscriber then pastes the transcript into the text submit box for thetime stamp, clicks the ‘submit’ button and the text of the transcript issubmitted in the manner previously described. Subsequently, thetranscriber's browser is then navigated to the main page 320 to claimanother time stamp. In this way, a rough draft of the source material isproduced by a team of transcribers working in parallel.

It should be noted that the Rapid Transcript process can also make useof stenography or voice recognition software to produce this initialrough draft.

If a staff member is observing a live meeting involving multiplespeakers, he/she may also log-on to the main page 320, and take notesregarding the speaker ID directly on the web page. Transcribers canconsult this speaker ID log while transcribing.

The next step is to edit the individual segments into a single document.An editor logs on to the project website, copies transcribed text fromone or more cells (text from more than one cell can be copied in oneswath), and edits the text. The editor listens to the audio segments andcross-references the transcribed material against the recorded segments.If the material at this point is ready for the client, the editoruploads the edited transcript to the Client web page. If the materialrequires additional fact-checking, the editor can upload the editedtranscript to a second web page, where another reviews the material andchecks facts.

The Rapid Transcript Web Page

A client begins by logging on to the provider's password protectedwebsite. This brings the client to a dedicated web page containing alist of the client's projects. More will be said about the client pageherein below. Any number of people associated with a given project maybe logged on concurrently.

The web page created for the client includes the transcript, with timecoding, side by side with a column containing a summary, if requested.Links to the one-minute audio or video segments are provided, as well asa link to a recording of the entire proceeding. As well as reading fromthe website, the client is able to download the transcript in either PDFor word-processing file formats. The transcript can also be sent byemail directly from this web page.

Translation

The rapid transcript method can be utilized in translation as well. Fora session that includes a translator, the client's web page typicallydisplays three main columns: transcription in the original language, thetranslator's words, and the provider's own expert translation.

Turning now to FIG. 5, shown is a matrix depicting an exemplary workflowfor the rapid transcript process. The timeline shown in FIG. 5 is merelyillustrative and is not intended to be limiting. The followingdescription proceeds by describing the role of each of the parties ateach point on the timeline.

Initially, before an event, a number of preparatory activities arecarried out, by the provider, the transcribers and the editors. Theprovider for example may perform any of:

-   -   Creating a web page for the transcribers and the editors;    -   Pre-populating the web page with individual segments that        correspond to the anticipated time and length of recording;    -   Specifying in the page the desired transcribing style and client        keywords;    -   Securing an audio feed and patching into the recording computer;        and    -   Setting up a backup recording computer.

Each of the transcribers and editors may also have a preparatory role.For example, each may need to configure his or her audio playbacksoftware to download recorded segments. Additionally, each transcriberclaims at least one segment. Finally, the client, in anticipation of theevent, may log onto a password protected web page. More will be saidabout the client's page below.

At minute 1, the provider records the first segment of the speech thatis to be transcribed. In one embodiment, the segment length is set atone minute. However, segment length is a configurable parameter andthus, the exemplary segment length of one minute is not intended to belimiting. It should be noticed that the segments are recorded with anoverlap in order to prevent loss of material. In one embodiment, theoverlap is configured to be five seconds in length.

At minute 2, the provider uploads segment 1 to the FTP site. Transcriber1 downloads segment 1 and begins transcribing it. The remainingtranscribers download subsequent segments as they become available. Theclient may, from their web site, review the audio of segment 1.

At minute 3, segment 2 is uploaded to the FTP site and transcriber 2begins transcription of segment 2.

At minute 4, the provider uploads segment 3 and transcriber 3 beginstranscribing segment 3.

At minute 5, the provider uploads segment 4 to the FTP site. Transcriber1 completes transcription of segment 1. Transcriber posts the transcriptto the web page in an appropriate cell and claims segment 6. Transcriber4 begins transcription of segment 4. Editor 1 begins proofreading ofsegment 1.

At minute 6, the provider uploads segment 5 to the FTP site andtranscriber 5 begins transcription of segment 5. Editor 1 completesproofreading of segment 1 and posts the proofread transcription to asecond web page.

At minute 7, the provider uploads segment 6 to the FTP site andtranscriber 1 begins transcription of segment 6. Transcriber 3 maycomplete transcribing of segment 3 and posts the transcript to the webpage in the appropriate cell. Transcriber 3 then claims segment 7.Editor 1 begins proofreading segment 3. Editor 2 fact-checks segment 1and posts to the client web page.

At minute 8, the provider uploads segment 7 to the FTP site. Transcriber2 may finish with segment 2 and post it to the web page in theappropriate cell, and then claim segment 8. Transcriber 3 may begintranscribing segment 7. Transcriber 4 may begin transcribing segment 4and posts it to the web page in the appropriate cell. Transcriber 4 thenmay claim segment 9. Editor 1 completes proofreading segment 3 and poststhe proofread transcript to the second web page. Editor 1 may then beginproofreading segment 2. The client may review the first installation ofthe transcript.

At minute 9, the provider uploads segment 8 to the FTP site. Transcriber2 may then begin transcription of segment 8. Editor 1 typicallycompletes segment 2 by this time and posts it to the second web page.Editor then proceeds to proofread segment 4. Editor 2 fact-checkssegment 3.

At minute 10, there may remain no further segments to upload.Transcriber 1 completes segment 6 and posts it to the web page in theappropriate cell. Transcriber 5 completes segment 5 and posts thetranscript to the web page in an appropriate cell. Editor 1 completesproofreading segment 4 and posts to the second web page. Editor 1 thenbegins proofreading segments 5 and 6. Editor 2 fact-checks segment 2 andposts segments 2 and 3 to the client web page.

At minute 11, Editor 1 completes proofreading segments 5 and 6. Editor 2begins and completes fact-checking segment 4. The second installation ofthe transcript is available to the client, containing segments 1-3.

At minute 12, Editor 2 begins and completes fact-checking segments 5 and6. The workflow proceeds in such fashion until all segments have beentranscribed, edited and fact-checked and reviewed by the client. Therapid transcript process may terminate, for example, approximately fiveminutes after the end of a live event with the delivery of a completedtranscript. Additionally, the client may download the audio and/or videoof the entire event from the client's project web site. Additionally,the transcript may be downloaded as a word-processing or .PDF file, orsent via email.

As described above, the usefulness of a conventional transcript to theclient is limited because the transcript is not synchronized to thesource content. Therefore, the client must spend a great deal of timesearching through the transcript and the source material in order toreconcile them to each other. In order to eliminate this cumbersomechore, transcripts are synchronized to the source material.

The Synch tool links a written transcript to its source material. In oneembodiment, the process of linking transcript and source materialfollows the rapid transcript process, either immediately or at someunspecified future time.

In another embodiment, the synchronization process can be applied to anyconventional transcript produced from audio and/or video sourcematerial. A web page allows an editor to view a video recording, forexample, side-by-side with a transcript of the video's audio content. Inone embodiment, the client sees four main items on the screen: a video,a transcript, a list of projects, and a “tagg” table. A tagg is anobject representing a memo of description created by the client thatdescribes the contents of a portion of the video. In this way, theclient is provided a means for reviewing and making decisions concerningaudio or video recording by means of a transcript which is linked to therecording. Multiple recordings can thus be categorized and referenced; aparticular phrase can be located in the written transcript andimmediately reviewed in the recording.

Each point in the recording is synchronized to the corresponding text inthe written transcript, so that selecting a word in the transcriptautomatically locates the corresponding spot in the recording.Conversely, advancing a recording to a particular point automaticallylocates and displays the corresponding text in the transcript. Therecording can be viewed using common video viewing features (play, stop,skip forwards and backwards, play at various speeds, etc.), and may bedownloaded. The client can read and edit the written transcript, andinsert comments. Any number of colleagues can be using this service towork on a series of transcripts simultaneously.

To synchronize the source material with the transcript, the sourcematerial is generally converted to a media player file format, ifnecessary. One embodiment converts source videos to the QUICKTIME(APPLE, INC., Cupertino Calif.) video format. The ordinarily skilledpractitioner will also appreciate that the QUICKTIME application canalso play many other types of media files, such as MPEG, MP3 and WAV.Thus, audio files can also be rendered in a format compatible with theQUICKTIME player.

As previously described, one or more transcribers create a transcript ofthe source material, typically using a word processing application suchas WORD (MICROSOFT CORPORATION). At the time the transcription iscreated, the transcriber(s) place(s) time code markers in thetranscript. If necessary, the transcript may be re-formatted using atext editor, such as TEXTPAD (HELIOS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS, Longridge, UK).Using a media transcription application such as INQSCRIBE (INQUIRIUM,LLC, Chicago, Ill.) the media file is combined with information aboutthe embedded time codes in the transcript. The transcript is thenfurther formatted to convert into a table wherein the time codes and thewritten words in the transcript are associated with each other in aone-to-one relationship. In one embodiment, converting the transcript toa table is accomplished by using a spreadsheet application, such asEXCEL (MICROSOFT CORPORATION) to format the transcript into cellsconsisting of time codes and transcript words. Each cell from thespreadsheet file then becomes a field in the database table. The wordsof the transcript are associated to the appropriate segment of sourcecontent by means of the time codes. As described below, a projectincludes a database, wherein the transcript tables are stored. When theclient selects a project to view, as described below, the transcript isreconstituted by displaying the words stored in the database in thecorrect order.

As previously described in relation to the time code process, a web pageis created for each project. The project web site preferably includes atleast one password-protected client page 330 wherein the client is ableto view the transcript.

Media Editing

A user of the audio/video editing service may begin by logging on to thepassword-protected web site. The main interface comprises a client page330 that displays a detailed view 602 as shown in FIG. 6. Detailed view602 may contain a list of projects accessible to the user. In oneembodiment, the main interface includes one or more of the followingsections: Project List 606; Transcript 608; Video 610; and Tagg table612.

Any number of people associated with a given project may be logged onconcurrently.

The user opens a project 700 by selecting a project from the list 606.This brings up the web page illustrated in FIG. 11 where, on one portionof the screen, one can view a recording 610 and, on another portion ofthe screen, there is a corresponding written transcript 608. This webpage may also be referred to as the main or client page. Additionally,the project's tagg table 612 is displayed as illustrated in FIG. 11,Labels and Label Whitelists in Panel A. A “label” is a name given to thetagg object that defines start and end time. Whenever a media editorselects a project different from the current one being displayed, theweb page replaces Project List 606; Transcript 608; Video 610; and Taggtable 612 with elements of the new project without the browser beingreloaded.

An embodiment enables the linking and coordination of the viewablerecording, the written transcript, and the various associated taggs.Each point in the recording corresponds to a specific place in thewritten transcript; if taggs have been created they are linked tospecific places in both the video and the written transcript. The mediaeditor, then, has three options for navigating the material: selecting aword in the transcript automatically locates the corresponding spot inthe recording; advancing a recording to a particular point automaticallylocates and displays the corresponding spot in the transcript; andselecting a tag will bring the user to the corresponding places in thevideo and transcript, and displays the contents of the tag in a dialoguebox. The relevant description for FIGS. 7-10 is incorporated herein fromU.S. Pat. No. 9,141,938 (entitled “Navigating a Synchronized Transcriptof Spoken Source Material from a Viewer Window”) and U.S. Pat. No.8,306,816 (entitled “Rapid Transcription by Dispersing Segments ofSource Material to a Plurality of Transcribing Stations”) by referencethereto.

Transcript Interactions

The transcripts prepared as described above may be imported into a mediaediting tool referred to herein as the media editing workspace. Thelinks between a transcript and its associated audio/video clip allow aneditor to edit the associated clip by performing word processing on thetranscript. Similar to authoring a text document containing paragraphsfrom other documents, an amalgamated video may be constructed bycombining and merging transcripts associated with multiple audio/videoclips.

The audio/video editing application may be accessed by many differentplatforms, for example, mobile, web, desktop, or embedded platforms,allowing users to navigate through digital audio/video content of allfile formats via their corresponding transcripts' text and hence enablethe editing, compositing, creating, sharing, and other manipulations oftheir content. A user of the audio/video editing application is a mediaeditor which is different than the transcription editor described above.Thus, in the context of the audio/video editing application, a user is aperson who uses the audio/video editing application to perform a mediaediting role. The user may be a client or represent a client's interest.

After the project is open, the client may select any text in thetranscript. Selecting a point in the transcript automatically locatesthe corresponding time point in the recording and plays the recordingfrom this spot forward. Embedded in the transcript text are timestampsthat indicate certain words of the transcript and the associatedlocation in the recording. To identify the time corresponding to a wordlocated between words associated with embedded timestamps, aninterpolation computation accurately determines an associated timewithin plus or minus 200 milliseconds.

The media editor may also read and edit the written transcript. When theuser hovers over the written transcript, the timecode for thecorresponding location within the media may be revealed. For example, atransparent “balloon tip” may display the time code in the correspondingrecording. Depending on the configuration for the project, time codesmay show the elapsed time of the recording, the day and time of theoriginal recording, or the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture andTelevision Engineers) time code embedded in the original recording.

In an embodiment, hovering may comprise positioning and pausing thecursor over a marker using a mouse or other pointing device.

Audio/Video Interactions

The user may listen to audio and/or view the video recording usingcommon media playing features (play, stop, skip forwards and backwards,play at various speeds, and so on).

The user can drag the play bar in the media player to a desired position900. The user then may push a ‘Show Text’ button next to the mediaplayer. The timestamp associated with the desired position of therecording may be used to look up the associated closest matching word(i.e. the word whose associated timestamp is the closest match to thecurrent playtime timestamp 902). The browser may display and highlightthe text corresponding to the words spoken in the video 912.Additionally, advancing a recording to a particular point automaticallylocates and displays the corresponding spot in the transcript.

Using Taggs

As described above, a tagg is a memo of description created by theeditor that describes the contents of a portion of the recording. Byinteracting with the tagg table, the user is able to navigate throughthe recording, in a similar manner to that enabled by interacting withthe transcript. The user may select a tagg 714, in response to which thebrowser may cause the media player to seek to the tagg's associatedmedia timestamp and to highlight the tagg's corresponding words in thetranscript.

A tagg can be created for a portion of the written transcript that theuser finds useful or interesting. Any number of taggs may be created byvarious users in a single project and they can be cross-referenced withmultiple recordings and transcripts within a project. Taggs are createdby highlighting a desired portion of text (also referred to as asegment). Once the text is highlighted, a dialogue box may appear andthe user may assign a name (also referred to as a title) to the portionof the recorded source material to which the tagg applies. Taggs may beof any length. A new tagg may overlap the segment corresponding to anexisting tagg.

When a new tagg is defined by the user, the program automaticallyrecords details related to the tagg, including the author of thesegment, the date and time the segment was created, the originalrecording that correlates with the segment, and the beginning and endingtime codes of the segment.

Once a tagg has been defined, the written transcript may be displayedwith visual markers that identify the starting and ending points of thetagg segment. Markers are named based on words within the segment sothat the name may provide a hint regarding the subject matter containedin the segment. The opening marker of a segment is displayed in coloredtext, green for example; the closing marker is displayed in a colordistinct from that of the opening marker, red for example.

Immediately upon defining a tagg, clients are prompted to write acomment. The client may write a comment of any length relating to agiven tagg. Additionally, a user may add a comment to a previouslycreated tagg. Users can also record comments about taggs in response toother clients' previously written remarks. This may serve as a forum fordiscussing materials.

When hovering over the beginning or ending markers, comments andidentifying information may be displayed.

All comments relating to any recording in a given project, along withtheir identifying details as described above, are stored in the taggtable 612. The tagg table may be viewed and edited online, or downloadedfor use in spreadsheet applications. Additionally, the tagg table, orany portion thereof, is separately exportable. In one embodiment, atleast the export version of the tagg table is written in a standardizedmarkup language such as XML (eXtendible Markup Language) so that thetagg table may be compatible with video editing programs such as FINALCUT PRO (APPLE, INC.) or AVID (AVID TECHNOLOGY, INC. Tewkesbury, Mass.).In this way, taggs can be used to facilitate the processes of videologging and editing.

The table may be sorted according to various criteria. For example, aneditor may wish to view all of the material related to a particularspeaker, and next to see which videotapes this material is on. As such,this is a valuable tool for editing, as it allows people to organizematerial from various sources.

Taggs may be edited, removed from the table perhaps to be used later, orpermanently deleted.

An editor may place (or remove) a star next to one or more favoritesegments to assist in editing. Segments may be sorted by the criterionof stars.

Labels and Whitelists

FIG. 20 provides a flow diagram showing the steps for creating labelsand whitelists, according to an embodiment of the invention. In Step2010, the editor finds and opens a source recording and associatedtranscript.

In step 2015, the editor looks through the transcript looking for textof particular interest. If the editor does not find text of interest,the editor may return to Step 2010 to look in a different transcript orstop the search.

In Step 2020, text of interest is found. In Step 2025, a tagg is createdto represent the text of interest by highlighting the text of interestin the transcript on the display using a mouse, a keyboard, or otheruser input device. The editor may select the highlighted text, and inStep 2030, a list of existing labels and a text field input may appearfor creating a new label.

In Step 2035, the user selects one or more labels to assign to the newlycreated tagg and may select an existing label or creates a new label. Ifthe user decides to choose an existing label to apply to the highlightedtext, they can choose a label from a label whitelist (a collection oflabels) or they can choose a standalone label (a singleton, one that isnot currently a member of a label whitelist). In either case, theselected label is associated with the tagg representing the highlightedtext and corresponding video.

If an existing single label is selected, as determined in Step 2055,then the label may become associated with the transcript identifier ofthe current transcript. A transcript identifier identifies an entiretranscript. Thus, search for a label may result in a list of transcriptidentifiers each representing a transcript that has at least a portionassociated with the searched for label.

If an existing group label is selected, as determined in Step 2055, thenin Step 2060, the transcript identifier may be added to the list ofassociated transcript identifiers for each label in the group of labels.

If in Step 2035, the user chooses to create a new label, then in Step2040, the editor enters a label name for the new label into the textfield. In Step 2045, the label is created and saved.

In Step 2050, the transcript identifier may be associated with the newlabel name.

In an embodiment, human editors may review the content of video clipsand label portions of the corresponding transcript according topredefined and/or user-established labels.

In an embodiment, the process of assigning labels to video clips by theeditor can be performed by a service provider, the client, or anotherperson/organization hired to perform the task.

In an embodiment, the client can create label whitelists. In addition, aservice provider may provide consulting services to create the labelsand label whitelists for the client.

In an embodiment, a label whitelist may be saved for private use, suchthat only the creator/owner of the label whitelist may use it, or it canbe made available for public use, such that others in the organizationcan use it and edit it. In an embodiment, a label whitelist may beassigned one of multiple permission settings such as private, use-only,or edit.

In an embodiment, a newly created label may be added to one or morelabel whitelists or it may be left ungrouped, i.e. a label need notbelong to any label whitelist.

In an embodiment, once a label or label whitelist is created, the labelmay be edited, and existing labels may be renamed or deleted if theyhave not yet been applied to a project. If a label has already beenapplied to a project, then it can be set to “hidden” so that it can nolonger be applied on future projects.

In an embodiment, additional labels can be added to and removed from anexisting label whitelist at any time. Label whitelists may also berenamed, and they may also be deleted. Deleting a label whitelist doesnot delete the labels contained therein, instead the named grouping ofthose labels is simply deleted, while the individual labels included inthe deleted label whitelist may continue to exist independently, as wellas remain a part of any other label whitelists with which they werepreviously associated.

In an embodiment, labels may be copied and/or moved in and out of labelwhitelists one at a time or en masse by selecting several labels at onetime. Labels may be copied and/or moved between label whitelists in thismanner as well.

The user can choose to use some, all, or none of the available labelwhitelists. Other labels can be added by the user at any time to anexisting label whitelist or saved as a new label whitelist for use oncurrent and future projects. Additionally, an editor may apply thelabels from multiple label whitelists to a single project. Furthermore,labels from multiple label whitelists can be combined for use as thepool of available filter criteria in a single search.

Labels and label whitelists may be exported using a file format easilyreadable by common spreadsheet and word processing programs. In this waythe user can review and compare outside of the application the labelscontained across multiple label whitelists. For example, the user maycompare several label whitelists to see which labels are common to allthe lists.

Projects, Projects Sections, and Project Pieces

Each project contains project pieces (portions of audio clips, videoclips, and corresponding transcripts from any number of events). Projectpieces can be organized into groups (project sections) by the user whereeach project section is given a name. Upon selecting a previously savedproject, all previously saved project pieces are loaded in the samestate as when the user last visited the project. An autosave indicatormay save the work contained in the panel whenever it detects a change.Deleting a project does not delete the source media/transcripts fromwhich the project pieces were derived.

When a project section is first created, it is given a default name,section 1, section 2, etc., which may then be renamed by the user.Project pieces may be assigned to specific project sections by selectingseveral contiguous project pieces and labeling them as a projectsection. For example, the user may define the following three projectsections in a particular project: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion,where each of these project sections consists of several project piecesof media from different audio/video sources arranged in a specificorder.

Each project section may be assigned a section status as to its state ofcompletion. Section statuses may include: “draft,” “needs review,”“awaiting client approval,” “Tigerfish pick,” and “final.” Each time asection status is applied to a project section, a record of that sectionstatus is stored together with the name of the person who assigned thesection status along with the date and time it was assigned. When thesection status, “final,” is assigned, the icon is a lock which thenneeds to be unlocked in order to make changes to that project section.Anyone can lock and unlock a project section. Each time a projectsection is set to “final” status, the state of that project section maybe preserved in an archive so that the project section may be retrievedin the future exactly as it was when it was locked. Each project sectionmay be locked and unlocked so that the sequence of the project piecescannot be changed. Also, any transcript portions contained within alocked project section may not have their transcript to mediafine-tuning changed, even in the source media, unless the projectsection is unlocked.

Each project can be expanded or collapsed to show its contents. Threelevels for viewing are available: project>project section(optional)>project pieces.

Deleting a project section does not delete the project pieces containedwithin that unit, it simply removes the grouping of the clips makingthem independent again.

Similar to project sections, each project may be assigned a projectstatus as to its state of completion. Project statuses and thefunctionality supporting them are the same as for section statuses.

When printing projects, the user may select options that determinewhether comments, notes, and labels are to be printed. Similarly, whenemailing a project, the emailed transcript may optionally includeassociated comments, notes, and labels as well as a link to thecorresponding audio or video.

User Interface

FIG. 11 provides a diagram of the overall user interface of the mediaediting workspace application, including all workspace panels, accordingto an embodiment of the invention. Panels A & B display the eventslibrary where the user can view and manage all their events, with panelB being a dual purpose panel described in more detail below. Eventtranscripts may be viewed and processed using panel C. Panel D isanother dual-purpose panel that allows a user to view and manageprojects in the project library and view and process projecttranscripts. Panel E displays the video viewer where video correspondingto an event video clip or a project video clip may be viewed andprocessed.

FIG. 12 provides a diagram of workspace panels A & B: Events Library,according to an embodiment of the invention. These two panels allow theuser to view and manage their events, search and filter video clipsacross multiple events, see the search results, and save search criteriafor future use on other projects. Here the user can also create andmanage their labels and label whitelists. Table 1 contains a detailedlist of tasks that may be performed using panels A and B.

A user may make a copy of a video and its associated transcript andassign the new copy a new name. The two copies may be edited indifferent ways. Performing a task on one copy, such as assigning a labelmay not affect the other copy. This is useful because the same event maybe used by different projects having different needs.

The user can search for video clips based on any combination of text,project name, labels, recommended clips, dates, and other factors. Theuser may search for video clips based on a single criterion or searchfor clips meeting a combination of criteria by selecting radio buttonsfor exclusionary selection, checkboxes for multi-select inclusionaryselection, applying value sliders, and entering text into text fields.The user may also use one or more label whitelists as the pool ofavailable filter criteria in a single search. There is also an optionregarding what parts of the event(s) should be included in the search.The user can include any combination of the following content areas tosearch: transcripts/videos, comments, labels, transcriber recommendedclips, and the user's own recommended clips.

TABLE 1 Tasks performed in panels A and B View existing events Changeorder of event listing by sorting based on a variety of factors Renameor delete existing events Edit and save events View the contents of anevent, i.e. see the individual audio/video clips contained in the eventSelect an audio/video clip to view its corresponding transcript Move anaudio/video clip from one event to another event Make a copy of a videoand its corresponding transcript Create and manage labels and labelwhitelists Search for video clips/transcripts based on a variety ofcriteria Select more than one event to search Export labels and labelwhitelists

The user has the ability to save and name these searches and retrievethem for future use. Saved searches can be private or made public forothers in their organization to use.

The filtered search results from panel A appear in panel B. Theresulting videos/transcripts are displayed using a thumbnail version ofthe corresponding video or audio as an icon. The icon used to indicate avideo file may differ visually from the icon used to indicate an audiofile. Resulting thumbnails are grouped and organized by defaultaccording to event names. The search results may also be grouped and/orsorted using a variety of factors, for example by purchase order number,case name, name of the person who placed the order, media file duration,and more. To select a video or an audio file, the user may select itsrepresentative thumbnail displayed in panel B. One or several thumbnailscan be selected at a time. Selected thumbnails can be assigned labelsvia a button that accesses the labeling functionality. If more than onethumbnail is selected, all selected thumbnails may be assigned thechosen label(s) at the same time.

FIG. 13 provides a diagram of workspace panel C: Event transcripts,according to an embodiment of the invention. Panel C allows the user toview the transcript of the corresponding event piece selected in panelB. In panel C, only one event transcript is displayed at a time.However, the user can quickly cycle through viewing several transcriptsby selecting them one at a time in panel B. Table 2 lists the tasks thatcan be performed on a transcript currently displayed in panel C:

TABLE 2 Tasks performed in panel C View a transcript associated with aselected project Edit a transcript Apply a label to the entiretranscript Apply labels to a selected portion of text Add a transcriptnote as part of a transcript notes thread associated with the entiretranscript Create and add to comment threads associated with a specificportion of text Identify recommended clips Fine-tune the link betweenthe transcript and video clip

The user may apply a label to the entire transcript by first selectingthe entire text of the transcript. A label that spans transcripts ofmultiple project pieces may be stored in the database associated witheach corresponding transcript section.

A clip can be identified as a recommended clip by selecting a portion ofa video by selecting the corresponding portion of the transcript andlabeling it as a Recommended Clip. This is used, for example, when thegoal is video production and for the purposes of selecting the bestvideo clip of a given speaker. Human editors may also pre-select theirfavorite video segments. You can add a comment to the Recommended Clipindicating why it was selected.

Each unique comment within a comment thread is identified with thecomment date and time, and name of the commenter. Similarly, alltranscript notes are identified with the note date and time, and name ofthe person who wrote the note.

FIG. 14 provides a diagram of workspace panel D: project library/projecttranscripts, according to an embodiment of the invention. This dualpurpose panel allows the user to view and manage their projects. It isalso one of two panels used to view and manipulate transcripts. Table 3lists the tasks that can be performed on a transcript.

An amalgamated video may be created using panel D. Video clips areselected by selecting a portion of the associated transcript using themouse or keyboard, and dragging the selected portion into panel D forcompositing. Alternatively the user may use standard Copy and Pastefunctionality to achieve the same result. In this manner the user maycreate an amalgamation of video clips in panel D comprised of clips froma number of event transcripts taken from panel C.

In addition to the tasks shown in Table 2, portions of transcripts canbe dragged from panel C onto panel D for composing video and transcriptsfrom multiple videos and/or events. Furthermore, the user can choose toswap panel C and panel D thereby changing where the correspondingfunctionality occurs on their screen.

Portions of event transcripts in panel D become project pieces in thecurrent project which can then be rearranged and/or added to projectsections as needed within the project. In so doing, the user canrearrange the transcript pieces to create a specifically orderedamalgamation of video clips.

TABLE 3 Tasks performed in panel D. Arrange the order of transcript texttaken from panel C Group transcript pieces into collections Manipulateand process transcripts described in panel C Add instructive and/ornarrative text for video compositing Drag portions of event transcriptsfrom panel C into the current project Mouse over transcript text toidentify the original video Add text for video compositing Trigger theplaying of the amalgamated video in panel E Add a project note as a partof a project notes thread

The user may display the source materials used within a composited videoand its corresponding transcript by hovering over any transcript text.Doing so may identify the original video corresponding to any transcripttext, including video title, date, speaker name and other availableinformation.

The user may add instructive and/or narrative text for videocompositing. The specified text may be intended to assist an editor increating a final video, for example, “insert soft music where the childis speaking” or the text may appear on screen for the purposes ofnarration, subtitling, or closed captioning. The text may appear next tothe video, as well as be included when exporting the project video. Textentered in this manner may appear different from transcript-derivedtext.

Clicking the “Play” button may result in playing an amalgamated videoincluding all the project pieces, along with any user-enteredinstructional and/or narration/subtitle/closed captioning text, beingplayed.

A project note may be added as part of a project notes thread associatedwith the entire project. Such notes facilitate discussion among one ormore participants about a given project. The notes may includequalitative analyses, legal, or strategic notes. All project notes areidentified with the project note date and time, and name of the personwho writes the note.

Any processing and editing of a transcript in either panel C or panel Dwill be reflected globally for that video/transcript piece throughoutthe application.

For viewing and managing projects, the user may perform the actions inTable 4. A new project can be created and saved with a unique name evenif it does not yet contain any project pieces. This allows the user toset up and organize project names ahead of time and then fill them withthe appropriate project pieces at a later time.

The system allows offline editing for panel C and panel D. When the userlogs back in after performing any offline edits, those changes areautomatically incorporated into the online version of the project.

A project may be exported/downloaded/uploaded to one of severaldifferent file formats. Examples of file formats supported may includethose supported by professional video editing programs such as Final CutPro and Avid, Adobe PDF, XML, popular word processing file formats,and/or exporting as a viewable video file, or uploaded directly toYouTube. The user will be allowed to select whether or not thedownloaded transcript contains text-based timecode markers. The user maygive the exported file a custom name.

TABLE 4 Tasks performed in panel D Create a new project View existingprojects and select one Rename or delete existing projects Edit and saveprojects Create project sections Assign project pieces to a projectsection Rearrange project pieces and project sections in a designatedorder Name a new project section and rename or delete existing projectsections View and change the status of each project section View thecontents of a project via a hierarchical tree structure Apply a singlelabel that spans the transcripts of several project pieces Save theproject View and change the status of a project Use the project librarytree structure to copy and/or move project pieces and/or projectsections between projects Export projects to one of several file formatsPrint projects

FIG. 15 provides a diagram of workspace panel E: View Video, accordingto an embodiment of the invention. Panel E allows the user to view videothat corresponds to the selected transcript(s). The panel may displaythe video that corresponds to a single event transcript, or portion ofthat event transcript, contained in panel C. The panel may also displaythe video of the amalgamated project from panel D, together withoptional corresponding text used to instruct the final video editorand/or used for narration, subtitling, or closed captioning of a finalvideo.

Panels can be slid into view, be hidden from view, andexpanded/collapsed in size so that the user can work with combinationsof panels to best meet the needs of the tasks they are performing. Asdescribed above, FIG. 11 shows all five panels displayed together.

FIG. 16 provides a diagram of the media editing workspace user interfacewith the positions of panels C and D swapped, according to an embodimentof the invention. All functionality as described above for panel C andpanel D remains with those panels, but the placement of these two panelson the screen can be changed by the user to suit their preferred userinterface layout.

FIG. 17 provides a diagram of the user interface where panels D and Eare hidden, according to an embodiment of the invention. When panels Dand E are hidden, panels A, B, and C may expand vertically. The user mayneed to focus only on their source transcripts from their events.Allowing them to hide panels D and E and thereby expand the remainingpanels A, B, and C gives them more screen space to work with.

FIG. 18 provides a diagram of the user interface where panels A and Bare hidden, according to an embodiment of the invention. When panels Aand B are hidden, panel D may expand vertically. The user may need tofocus on the transcript text from a source event video, the transcripttext that is part of a composited project, and the corresponding videofor either transcript. Expanding panel D vertically allows the user toview a piece of source video and decide if and where it should beincluded in the composited project. By hiding the events library panelsA and B, the user may have the most screen real estate available forfocusing just on the transcripts and the corresponding videos.

FIG. 19 provides a diagram of the user interface where panels A, B, andE are hidden, according to an embodiment of the invention. By hidingpanels A, B, and E, panels C and D may expand vertically and existside-by-side.

FIG. 21 is a flow diagram of how an editor may create a project, editand amalgamate video clips and their corresponding transcripts withinthat project, and may save and export the project, according to anembodiment of the invention.

In Step 2110 an editor initiates work on a project. In Step 2115, adetermination is made regarding whether the editor wants to create a newproject or open an existing project. If a new project is to be created,it is created in Step 2120. If an existing project is requested, theproject is opened from the project library in Step 2125. In Step 2130,the project is displayed in the user interface with the focus in panelD.

In Step 2135, the editor selects a source event in panels A and B, andopens a corresponding source transcript for viewing in panel C and acorresponding source video is displayed in panel E. In Step 2140, theeditor highlights text of interest in the transcript (panel C). Evenwhen the editor needs a composited video as an end result, they may usethe video's corresponding synchronized transcript as a means to cut andcomposite the video. Alternatively, the editor may only need acomposited transcript for their end result. Either way, the method forcompositing video or compositing transcripts is the same. In Step 2145,the editor may drag the highlighted text from panel C and drops thehighlighted text into the project view (panel D). Note that panel D hastwo views: project library view and project transcripts view. The editorcan drag the selected text from panel C onto panel D in whichever viewpanel D happens to be in. FIG. 23 provides a diagram of two differentviews of Panel D. When in project library view, the selected text willappear in panel D as a project piece to be arranged within the projectas shown in the hierarchical tree view 2310 in FIG. 23. The name of theproject is at the top level of the hierarchical tree, then sectionswithin a project are at the next level of the tree, and then individualclips within each section are leaf nodes in the tree. Clicking on a clipwithin a section of a project causes Panel D to switch to transcriptview showing the transcript of the selected clip in the transcript view2320. If Section 1 is clicked on, the transcript associated with Clips 1through 4 would be displayed in Panel D transcript view 2320. If theentire Project is clicked on, the transcript associated with all clipscurrently in the project would be displayed.

In Step 2150, a test is made to determine if the end of the transcripthas been reached. If the end of the transcript has not yet been reached,then in Step 2155, the editor may continue viewing video and transcript,returning to Step 2140. If the end of the transcript has been reached,then in Step 2160, the editor may indicate whether footage is neededfrom another video. If more video is needed, the editor returns to Step2135 where a new source video may be opened. If no more video is needed,then in Step 2165 the editor may save the project in Step 2170 or exportthe project in Step 2175. Exporting may use a predefined profile for aprogrammable media converter such as FFmpeg to composite the videosegments corresponding to the text in the project. In Step 2180, whenthe composition of video segments is completed, a link may be displayedfor downloading the composite video. In Step 2185, the editor traverses(e.g. clicks on) the link and downloads the resultant video.

Example Embodiments

The system components illustrated in FIG. 22 may be embodied in avariety of ways. What follows are one or more exemplary implementationsfor the components.

Hosting Environment

Although the provider of the transcription service and video editingapplication may provide and manage the hardware environment in-house, atleast some pieces of the hardware environment may be hosted by a thirdparty provider. As shown in FIG. 22, in an embodiment, the editingapplication may be hosted in a hosting environment 2200 that manages thedatabases and servers. The hosting environment may be an application orservice provider's IT datacenter or the hosting environment may beoutsourced to a cloud computing provider. The components of theaudio/video editing application may be independently hosted bycommercial hosting services. For example, third-party hosting servicessuch as Heroku, Rackspace, and Linode may be used separately or all atonce to provide stable accessibility to data and scalability ofapplication load. The database may be hosted by third-party servicessuch as MongoLab, MongoHQ, and custom Amazon EC2 for redundancy and fastretrieval. Application versioning may be handled by Github, for example.

The hosting environment 2220 may include an asset database 2202 forstoring digitally captured audio and video, a transcripts database 2204for storing transcription artifacts such as a textual transcript, tags,and project lists, and one or more web servers 2240 for generating webpages 2242, 2244, 2246 that provide the browser-based user interface ofthe application as well as to upload updated transcription artifacts.

Transcript Database

The integrator and provider of the transcription platform may custombuild a database to specifically address the needs of the application.Alternatively, in an exemplary embodiment, an existing document-orienteddatabase system such as MONGODB may be chosen for the database layer dueto its inherent extensibility characterized by easily-addedfunctionality and flexibility in changing the schema. For example, thefollowing functionality may be offered: A client collection may storerelevant data to provide information for the backend server to identifya valid client; a transcript collection may store metadata of thetranscript of a media file, and a word collection may be associated withtranscript documents from the transcript collection such that a documentfrom the transcript collection can have many documents from the wordcollection. In an embodiment, a Word document in the word collection maybe stored in WORD (MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Redmond, Wash.) format;however, a document in the Word collection may be stored in othertextual formats understood by other word processors. Each Word documentwill contain exactly one word of the transcript and the timestamp thatmatches the time in which the utterance thereof takes place in the mediafile's playback. Other embodiments may provide the documents in one ormore additional formats; for example other word-processing formats, orPDF (portable document) or as text files.

The transcript database may further store a client collection having anassociation with the transcript collection such that a client documentcan have many transcript documents; a label collection for ‘bookmarking’individual or a range of Word documents; an event collection into whichtranscript documents are organized; and/or a project collection tocontain new transcript documents that are created from snippets ofexisting transcript documents created by the client or a professionaltranscription service, such as Tigerfish, from their original mediafiles.

Web Framework

A web framework, such as Rails and Node, may be used to provideauthentications, Model-Controller-View code organization andabstraction, routing web URL or TCP/IP requests into actions inside acontroller and thus triggering retrieval, creation, modification, anddestruction of data inside the database collections. For authentication,various open-sourced Ruby Gems (plugins for the Rails web frameworks) orNPM modules (plugins for the Node.js web framework) for this purposewill be used, e.g., ‘devise’ or ‘sorcery’. Assets such as media files,JavaScript, Cascading Stylesheets, and images will be stored on ‘cloudstorage’ such as Amazon S3. They are served from multiple locations tomaximize the number of allowed concurrent connections into the browserfor optimal transfer rates.

User Interface and Frontend

User interface elements (UI elements) may be provided by open-sourcedlibraries such as Twitter Bootstrap or jQuery-UI for responsive designallowing the Application to fit in any screen size such as a screen on adesktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, and/or mobile phone.A UI element has associated behavior when selected by a user. Userinteractions may be conveyed and interpreted by CoffeeScript intofrontend side controller actions created by the open-sourced projectAngular.js, which determines user interactions such as mouse click,mouse hover, keypress down, keypress up, mouse scroll, etc., and whenthese actions happen upon a designated UI element, an action inside theAngular.js controller may be triggered such as to seek the playbackposition of a media file, to retrieve transcript data from the backend,to create a new transcript in the backend, etc. Video/audio playback maybe natively supported by the browser.

In an embodiment, a Model-View-Controller (MVC) software architecturepattern may be used to implement the media editing application. The viewmay be implemented by browser elements together with cascading stylesheets, HTML templates, and embedded scalable vector graphics, flash,java and/or silverlight.

The model may include the application data stored in the database. Theapplication data comprises the transcript artifacts, the source media,tagg tables, client information, transcripts, and the relationship amongthese data. The model may include functions for retrieving, updating,and storing the application data. The controller responds to user inputby generating commands for the model and/or view. Upon receiving userinput, a browser may call a controller 604 such as ‘Ruby on Rails.’Depending on the type of user input, the controller may invoke functionsto change the model and/or to change the view.

Upon logging in, the controller may collect all the HTML items includedin the specification of the view template. Each HTML item is aplaceholder for and represents where and how to display text itemsretrieved from the database. The controller may also retrieve the textitems from the database and display the text items as directed in thepre-made view template on the user's browser. The view templatespecifies which text item goes to which portion of the four portions ofthe main page 602 mentioned above. Then the main page is loaded.

An important feature of the media editing user interface is the abilityto navigate from a time location in a source media to a correspondingword in a textual transcript, from a word in a transcript to acorresponding time location in the source media, and from a tagg to thecorresponding locations in both the source media and the transcript.

An HTML element may be created for displaying a selected word in atranscript. The HTML element may be associated with a word document inthe collection of word documents comprising the transcript. This HTMLelement may also contain the HTML5 ‘data-attribute’ for the timestampfor the associated word document. An event-listener for the ‘mouseclick’ event may be set to listen for user clicks upon this HTMLelement. When clicked, this HTML element may convey the timestamp to theappropriate action inside the Angular.js controller for seeking positionin the current video/audio playback in the browser.

The action in the controller may be associated with a Set Time event ina JavaScript library that passes the audio or video identifier and thetimestamp to the QUICKTIME player. The QUICKTIME player automaticallyissues a call back which carries the message indicating whether or notthe portion of media has been loaded. When the JavaScript libraryreceives the call back, the library may notify the user through a CSSpop-up that the video is still being downloaded and cannot be played,and when the appropriate portion of the video is loaded, the QUICKTIMEplayer may play the video, beginning at the spot indicated by the timestamp.

When the user repositions the video to a new time location, theQUICKTIME player may invoke a JavaScript function that passes thecurrent playtime timestamp in the QUICKTIME player to a JavaScriptlibrary which then converts hours/minutes/seconds timestamp to aninteger timestamp and finds the closest matching word ID whose timestampis the closest match to the current playtime timestamp. This JavaScriptfunction then highlights the text whose timestamp matches the word IDthat was just found. The browser displays and highlights the textcorresponding to the words spoken at that location in the video.

To create a tagg, the user may highlight a portion of the transcriptusing an input device such as a mouse, keyboard, gesture-based pointingdevice, stylus, or voice command. Highlighting the portion of thetranscript triggers a pair of JavaScript events. The ‘OnMouseDown’ eventcauses a word ID, transcript ID, and a timestamp of the first wordhighlighted to be passed to a hidden html form. The ‘OnMouseUp’ eventcauses a word ID, transcript ID, and a timestamp of the last wordhighlighted to be passed to the hidden html form, which triggers a thirdevent called’ ‘FormPopUp’.

The ‘FormPopUp’ event may utilize the CSS ‘visibility’ attribute tounhide the hidden form mentioned above, so that the user is now able toenter desired descriptive information in this form. When the user hasdone so, the user clicks a button which submits the form to a URL whichtriggers a ‘Create Tagg’ action in a ‘Ruby on Rail's’ controller. Thataction sends the parameters to the tagg model in ‘Ruby on Rails’, wherea validation function is triggered that checks all the incoming data.

If all data is validated, the model creates a new row in a databasetable (such as the ‘MySQL’ database). The controller calls a built in‘Prototype’ JavaScript event which updates the browser with the newdata, without reloading the browser. If not all data is validated, themodel calls the controller to send an error message back to the browser,which is displayed by setting the CSS ‘visibility’ attribute of theerror message HTML div tagg to “visible.”

The user clicks on a time stamp in the tagg table 612. This may triggeran ‘OnClick’ JavaScript event that calls the inline html JavaScriptfunction to replace this time stamp with an editable field. Thiseditable field contains four subfields, labeled Hour, Minute, Second,and milliseconds or Frames. The user can then manually input a number inone or more of these subfields. The user either hits “Enter” or“Escape”.

Hitting ‘Enter’ or clicking anywhere on the web page submits theseparameters to an action in the controller that passes these parametersto a model which does a validation of this data. If the data isvalidated, the model updates the entry in the database table. The actionalso overrides the original time code in tagg and sends these parametersback to another action in the controller which updates the tagg in thetagg table in the browser without reloading the browser.

Hitting ‘Escape’ triggers an ‘onkeypress’ JavaScript event whichtriggers a JavaScript function to cancel and remove the editable modeand hence leave the timestamp unmodified. The JavaScript function alsorestores the display mode.

Analogous to the traditional “copy and paste” in desktop wordprocessors, a user may drag and drop the above HTML element(s) into anempty HTML element. A transcript is formed when HTML elements are pastedinto the previously empty HTML element. The timestamps of the “pasted”HTML element(s) are preserved corresponding to playback points of thevideo. The user can save this newly created transcript from theoriginally empty HTML element in the backend database where uponre-login into the App, the user created transcript will be re-displayed.

Creating a Label

Each of the UI elements that correspond to a Word document may also bemarked for creating a descriptive label document. To create a label, theuser may right click on the UI element, a listener for the right clickevent may trigger an action in the Angular.js controller which mayprompt the user for some descriptive text for the label and save thislabel automatically to the database. The label thus created can bere-applied to any other word document(s). To do so, the user may markthe word document(s) and right click on it causing the same prompt wherethe user had previously put in the descriptive text for the label toappear. In the prompt there may be a list of existing labels to choosefrom, clicking on which will cause the Angular.js controller to form aone-to-many (one label to one-or-many word documents) association andsave this association in the database. Additionally, a word document maybe assigned multiple labels by repeating the above steps on the UIelement that corresponds to the word document using the right clickevent. Such labels may be queried in the future for filteringtranscripts. Such filtering may be performed by the server where adatabase built-in search mechanism is used to filter out relevanttranscript documents. The search which filters the transcript documentsin the frontend uses the same search mechanism as used by the server,and at the same time allows the user to designate additional filteringattributes all at once or one at a time, wherein a collection in thedatabase will be instructed to filter forever finer selection.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made theretowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for editingvideo using a corresponding written transcript, the method comprisingthe steps of: displaying one or more events within an events library ofa workspace application; receiving from a user, via an input device, aselection of a particular event of the one or more events; receivingfrom the user, via the input device, input specifying a label within theevents library, wherein the events library enables the user to createand manage labels usable across the workspace application; appending thelabel to an event, a transcript segment, or a video segment that hasbeen selected from the events library by the user; retrieving a firstvideo source corresponding to the particular event and a writtentranscript that is synchronized to said first video source; displayingthe written transcript in a first user-accessible text viewer of theworkspace application; receiving from the user, via the input device, aselection of a portion of the written transcript; receiving from theuser, via the input device, a selection of a location within a seconduser-accessible text viewer of the workspace application; copying theselected portion of the written transcript from the firstuser-accessible text viewer and pasting the selected portion to thelocation within the second user-accessible text viewer; repeating saidcopying and pasting process between the first user-accessible textviewer and the second user-accessible text viewer; rearranging aplurality of portions in any order within the second user-accessibletext viewer based on commands received from the user; creating anamalgamated video based on the plurality of portions that appear in thesecond user-accessible text viewer by combining segments of the firstvideo source corresponding to the plurality of portions; playing theamalgamated video in a user-accessible video viewer of the workspaceapplication; continuing to refine the amalgamated video responsive tofurther manipulation of the plurality of portions in the seconduser-accessible text viewer by the user; and globally harmonizingchanges made by the user within the first user-accessible text viewer,the second user-accessible text viewer, and the user-accessible videoviewer across the entire workspace application.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, the method further comprising:displaying a second transcript of a second video source that isdifferent than the first video source; allowing the user to copy andpaste portions of the second transcript into the second user-accessibletext viewer; and responsive to the user selecting a textual transcriptsegment among the plurality of portions pasted into the seconduser-accessible text viewer, displaying video/transcript details of theselected textual transcript segment.
 3. The computer-implemented methodof claim 2, wherein the details include event name, recording name, timecode, date of recording, time of recording, or a combination thereof. 4.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving from the user, via the input device, input of one or moreparameters within a search field displayed in the events library of theworkspace application; performing a search or a filter of video clipsacross all of the one or more events based on the one or moreparameters; and presenting results of the search or the filter withinanother events library of the workspace application.
 5. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing instructions for editing videousing a corresponding written transcript, said instructions, whenexecuted by a processor, causing the processor to: display one or moreevents within an events library of a workspace application; receive froma user, via an input device, a selection of a particular event of theone or more events; receive from the user, via the input device, inputspecifying a label within the events library, wherein the events libraryenables the user to create and manage labels usable across the workspaceapplication; append the label to an event, a transcript segment, or avideo segment that has been selected from the events library by theuser; retrieve a first video source corresponding to the particularevent and a written transcript that is synchronized to said first videosource; display the written transcript in a first user-accessible textviewer of the workspace application; receive from the user, via theinput device, a selection of a portion of the written transcript;receive from the user, via the input device, a selection of a locationwithin a second user-accessible text viewer of the workspaceapplication; copy the selected portion of the written transcript fromthe first user-accessible text viewer and paste the selected portion tothe location within the second user-accessible text viewer; allow theuser to repeat said copying and pasting process between the firstuser-accessible text viewer and the second user-accessible text viewer;receive from the user commands to rearrange a plurality of portionswithin the second user-accessible text viewer in any order; create anamalgamated video based on the order of the plurality of portions thatappear in the second user-accessible text viewer by combining segmentsof the first video source corresponding to the plurality of pastedportions; play the amalgamated video in a user-accessible video viewerof the workspace application; allow the user to continue refining theamalgamated video by receiving user commands for further manipulatingthe plurality of portions in the second user-accessible text viewer; andglobally harmonize changes made by the user within the first-useraccessible text viewer, the second user-accessible text viewer, and theuser-accessible video viewer across the entire workspace application. 6.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, furthercomprising instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to:display a second transcript of a second video source that is differentthan the first video source; receive user commands to copy and pasteportions of the second transcript into the second user-accessible textviewer; and responsive to receiving from the user a selected textualtranscript segment among the plurality of portions pasted into thesecond user-accessible text viewer, display video/transcript details ofthe selected textual transcript segment including an event name, arecording name, and a time code.
 7. A method for creating and editingvideo using written transcripts, the method comprising: displaying oneor more events within an events library of a network-accessibleworkspace; receiving user input indicative of a selection of aparticular event of the one or more events; receiving user inputspecifying a label within the events library, wherein the events libraryenables a user to create and manage labels usable across the workspaceapplication; appending the label to an event, a transcript segment, or avideo segment that has been selected from the events library; retrievinga first source video corresponding to the particular event and a firsttranscript that is synchronized to the first source video; displaying atleast a portion of the first transcript in a first text viewer of thenetwork-accessible workspace; receiving user input indicative of aselection of a portion of the first transcript by the user; receivinguser input indicative of a selection of a location within a second textviewer of the network-accessible workspace; copying the portion of thefirst transcript from the first text viewer and pasting the portion ofthe first transcript to the location within the second text viewer;enabling the user to repeat said copying and pasting between the firstand second text viewers; enabling the user to rearrange a plurality offirst transcript portions within the second text viewer; creating acompiled video using a plurality of first source video portionscorresponding to the plurality of first transcript portions, wherein theplurality of first source video portions are combined based on anarrangement of the plurality of first transcript portions within thesecond text viewer; presenting the compiled video within a video viewerof the network-accessible workspace; enabling the user to modify thecompiled video by further manipulating the plurality of first transcriptportions within the second text viewer; and globally harmonizing changesmade within the first text viewer, the second text viewer, and the videoviewer across the entire network-accessible workspace.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising: enabling the user to play the compiledvideo in the video viewer.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the firsttext viewer, the second text viewer, and the video viewer are accessiblevia a web browser executing on a network-accessible editing device. 10.The method of claim 8, wherein the first text viewer, the second textviewer, and the video viewer are accessible via a viewer applicationexecuting on a network-accessible editing device.
 11. The method ofclaim 7, wherein all user input is supplied by the user via an inputdevice.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the input device is a mouse,keyboard, gesture-based pointing device, stylus, voice command, ortouch-sensitive display.
 13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:receiving a second source video and a second transcript that issynchronized to the second source video; displaying at least a portionof the second transcript in the first text viewer; and enabling the userto simultaneously view, copy, and paste portions of the first and secondtranscripts into the second text viewer.
 14. The method of claim 7,further comprising: responsive to the user selecting one of theplurality of first transcript portions in the second text viewer,displaying details associated with the selected first transcriptportion.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the details include detailsabout the selected first transcript portion, details about a firstsource video portion corresponding to the selected first transcriptportion, or both.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the detailsinclude event name, recording name, time code, date of recording, timeof recording, or a combination thereof.
 17. The method of claim 7,wherein the events library, the first text viewer, the second textviewer, and the video viewer are simultaneously viewable within anapplication executing on an editing device.
 18. The method of claim 7,wherein dimensions of the events library, the first text viewer, thesecond text viewer, and the video viewer are separately manipulable bythe user, and wherein an arrangement of the events library, the firsttext viewer, the second text viewer, and the video viewer within thenetwork-accessible workspace is editable by the user.